genetic experiments and house spirits

something like 300 pocket bears later, i found myself feeling very off-kilter about them. they ceased to please me, no matter which way i tweaked them. (and what is the point of all of this if it doesn't please?) i have a small box of pocket bear prototypes and they all felt wrong, wrong, wrong. perhaps in a few months, i'll look back and wonder what i was fussing about. but for now, i think the truth is... i am all beared out.

part of me feels guilty about this. (abandoner! traitor! meanie!) but a bigger part sees an opportunity to experiment and evolve. and the end result truly is a product of evolution, and quite possibly qualifies as the first genetic experiment ever made in felt. ever wonder what would happen if you crossed a pocket bear, a foundling, and an oeufling? you might end up with something just like this...

house spirits! friendly and mischievous, yet rather helpful little fellows who often turn up in clean laundry, backs of cupboards, and tucked among the house plants. they battle dust bunnies, and mop up leaky plants. they chase down errant coffee beans and will pop 'round to get the socks that fall behind the dryer.

safe for little hands, but perhaps just as well suited for grown up hands, too. (i, for one, will never turn away a good little dust bunny battler.) each will have his own special number and they will be begin popping into the shop later this week! (of course, completely ignoring the tuesday shop updates i had attempted to establish. but i just can - not - wait.)

my littlest four-legged helper came to assist with the photos. she should really have a house spirit of her very own... a little conscience to remind her that clean laundry is not an approved place for dogs to sleep, and maybe to wipe her smoosh-face nose. alas, none of the house spirits seemed too eager for the job after seeing her gum a stuffed hedgie to a very damp death.

r